David Horowitz Freedom Center

The David Horowitz Freedom Center, formerly the Center for the Study of Popular Culture (CSPC), is a conservative[3][4][5] foundation founded in 1988 by political activist David Horowitz and his long-time collaborator Peter Collier. It was established with funding from groups including the John M. Olin Foundation, the Bradley Foundation and the Scaife Foundation. It runs several websites and blogs, including FrontPage Magazine, Students for Academic Freedom and the blog Jihad Watch. Both the foundation and Jihad Watch have been described as Islamophobic.[6][7][8]

David Horowitz Freedom Center
Founded1988
FounderDavid Horowitz
Peter Collier
TypeConservative think-tank
95-4194642
FocusMedia
Location
Coordinates34.1514°N 118.4544°W / 34.1514; -118.4544
Area served
United States
ProductFrontPage Magazine
Key people
David Horowitz, Founder & CEO
Peter Collier, Vice President of Publications
Michael Finch, President
Revenue (2013)
$7,095,015[2]
Websitewww.horowitzfreedomcenter.org
Formerly called
Center for the Study of Popular Culture

Mission and budget

The original intention of the CSPC was to establish a foothold in Hollywood, California. It was to serve as a platform for conservative speakers and debates between conservative and liberal speakers.

In 2003 Horowitz expanded the scope of the CSPC to include monitoring what CSPC views as an ingrained hostility towards conservative scholarship and ideas within academia. He established Students for Academic Freedom (SAF) to further that goal.

DHFC is a 501(c)(3) charity. In 2005 it had revenues of $4.9 million, expenses of $4.0 million, 8.4% of which was $336,000 compensation for David Horowitz.[1] For 2008 the DHFC reported on IRS Form 990 revenues of $5,466,103 and expenses of $5,994,547 with total compensation to David Horowitz of $480,162 and to vice-president Peter Collier of $228,744.[9]

Programs

The Center has the following ongoing programs.[10]

Heterodoxy was a news magazine published in a tabloid format by the center, edited by David Horowitz and Peter Collier. Its focus was said to be on exposing the excesses of "political correctness" on college and university campuses across the United States.[36]

Funding activities

Between July 2000 and February 2006, the center (under its old name) was the sponsor of 25 trips by United States senators and representatives, all Republicans, to six different events. Total expenditures were about $43,000.[37]

In 2014–2015, Horowitz provided $250,000 in funding to the Dutch right-wing nationalist Geert Wilders's Party for Freedom, possibly violating U.S. tax law.[38][39][40]

Criticism

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has described the Center as a far-right organization[41] and anti-Muslim hate group.[42][43] According to Horowitz, the SPLC's designation of his conservative think tank as a hate group resulted in his Freedom Center's donation processing system being blocked by Visa and Mastercard,[44] in which he plans to "fight back" and "push for an investigation" against the SPLC and Visa and Mastercard.[45]

Chip Berlet, writing for the SPLC, accused Horowitz of blaming slavery on "black Africans ... abetted by dark-skinned Arabs" and of "attack[ing] minority 'demands for special treatment' as 'only necessary because some blacks can't seem to locate the ladder of opportunity within reach of others,' rejecting the idea that they could be the victims of lingering racism."[46] Responding with an open letter to Morris Dees, president of the SPLC, Horowitz stated that his reminder that the slaves transported to America were bought from African and Arab slavers was a response to demands that only whites pay blacks reparations, not to hold Africans and Arabs solely responsible for slavery, and that the statement that he had denied lingering racism was "a calculated and carefully constructed lie." The letter said that Berlet's work was "so tendentious, so filled with transparent misrepresentations and smears that if you continue to post the report you will create for your Southern Poverty Law Center a well-earned reputation as a hate group itself."[47] The SPLC replied that they stood by the accuracy of the report,[48] and subsequent critical pieces on Berlet and the SPLC have been featured on Horowitz's website and personal blog.[49][50]

In a 2011 report, the Center for American Progress cited Horowitz as a prominent figure instrumental in demonizing Islam and spreading fear about an Islamic takeover of Western society.[51] Horowitz responded, saying that the Center had "joined the Muslim Brotherhood".[52]

The Anti-Defamation League wrote that Horowitz sponsors a college campus project that promotes anti-Muslim views and arranges events with anti-Muslim activists.[53] The DHFC was also a sponsor of the May 3, 2015, Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest in Garland, Texas,[54] where two Muslim terrorist attackers were shot and killed by a school security guard.[55]

References

  1. "Charity Navigator Rating – The David Horowitz Freedom Center". Charitynavigator.org. Retrieved February 11, 2013.
  2. Organizational ProfileNational Center for Charitable Statistics (Urban Institute)
  3. Maureen Ryan. The Other Side of Grief: The Home Front and the Aftermath in American Narratives of the Vietnam (Culture, Politics, and the Cold War Culture, Politics, and the conservative David Horowitz Freedom Center). Univ. of Massachusetts Press. p. 213.
  4. Asma Khalid (October 20, 2007). "Horowitz campus effort targets Islamic 'fanatics'". The Spokesman-Review. Retrieved February 11, 2013.
  5. Michael Krebs (December 23, 2010). "Controversy in Seattle over anti-Israel outdoor advertisements". DigitalJournal.com. Retrieved February 11, 2013.
  6. Kazem, Halima (June 20, 2016). "Funding Islamophobia: $206m went to promoting 'hatred' of American Muslims". The Guardian. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  7. Yang, Jennifer (December 21, 2017). "Board member of anti-racism agency fired amid accusations of Islamophobic commentary". Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  8. John L. Esposito (2011). "Islamophobia and the Challenges of Pluralism in the 21st Century - Introduction" (PDF). Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 24, 2012. Retrieved August 27, 2012.
  9. "2008 IRS Form 990" (PDF).
  10. Archived June 13, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  11. "FrontPage Magazine". Frontpagemag.com. February 7, 2013. Retrieved February 11, 2013.
  12. Jenkins, Philip (2007). God's Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe's Religious Crisis. Oxford University Press. pp. 14, 182. ISBN 9780199886128. ultra-conservative [p. 14] ... right-wing [p. 182]
  13. Lisa Wangsness (December 5, 2016). "An interfaith marriage of our times: Muslim and Jewish groups form coalition to fight bigotry". The Boston Globe.
  14. Dan Conifer (July 11, 2016). "Text slabs from Pauline Hanson's One Nation policies lifted from internet". ABC News (Australia).
  15. Erdoan A. Shipoli (2018). Islam, Securitization, and US Foreign Policy. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 247.
  16. David Kenner (September 10, 2013). "How Assad Wooed the American Right, and Won the Syria Propaganda War". Foreign Policy.
  17. Allan Smith (March 10, 2017). "Monica Crowley claimed reports of her plagiarism were 'debunked' – but they weren't". Business Insider.
  18. Ekman, Mattias (March 30, 2015). "Online Islamophobia and the politics of fear: manufacturing the green scare". Ethnic and Racial Studies. 38 (11): 1986–2002. doi:10.1080/01419870.2015.1021264. ISSN 0141-9870. S2CID 144218430.
  19. David Noriega (November 16, 2016). "How One Policy Change Could Wipe Out Muslim Civil Liberties". BuzzFeed.
  20. Mathias, Christopher (January 13, 2017). "Ted Cruz vs. The Muslim Brotherhood Boogeyman". Huffington Post. Retrieved August 20, 2018.
  21. Tapson, Mark. "TruthRevolt's New Editor-in-Chief". TruthRevolt. David Horowitz Freedom Center. Retrieved May 10, 2016.
  22. "Our Mission". TruthRevolt. David Horowitz Freedom Center. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
  23. "Discover the Networks". Discover the Networks. Archived from the original on July 3, 2013. Retrieved February 11, 2013.
  24. Gorenfeld, John (April 12, 2005). "Roger Ebert and Mohammed Atta, partners in crime – Salon.com". Dir.salon.com. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved February 11, 2013.
  25. "Students For Academic Freedom". Students For Academic Freedom. Archived from the original on August 8, 2003. Retrieved February 11, 2013.
  26. "PFAW". Archived from the original on June 2, 2016. Retrieved June 25, 2016.
  27. Robert Spencer Joins the David Horowitz Freedom Center Archived April 18, 2009, at the Stanford Web Archive, FrontPage Magazine, September 6, 2006
  28. ROBERT SPENCER Page at Jihadwatch.
  29. Glenn Beck Transcript, CNN, August 10, 2006
  30. Glenn Beck Transcript, CNN, October 23, 2006
  31. Invitation to author upsets Muslims, Indianapolis Star, March 18, 2007 Archived September 28, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  32. Hegghammer, Thomas (July 24, 2011). "The Rise of the Macro-Nationalists". The New York Times. Retrieved July 30, 2011.
  33. "Individual Rights Foundation". Archived from the original on June 5, 2013. Retrieved April 18, 2013.
  34. "Documents". BSALegal.org. Retrieved February 11, 2013.
  35. Archived October 24, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  36. Horowitz, David; Collier, Peter (January 1, 1994). The Heterodoxy Handbook: How to Survive the PC Campus. Regnery Pub. ISBN 9780895267313 via Google Books.
  37. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved September 18, 2006.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  38. Fang, Lee (March 3, 2017). "California Nonprofit May Have Violated Tax Law By Donating to Anti-Muslim, Far-Right Dutch Candidate". The Intercept.
  39. Ishaan, Tharoor (March 14, 2017). "Analysis - Geert Wilders and the mainstreaming of white nationalism". The Washington Post.
  40. "Geert Wilders's Far-Right Dutch Party Sees Drop in U.S. Money". The New York Times.
  41. "Dutch Lawmaker Brings His Anti-Muslim Spiel to U.S." Southern Poverty Law Center.
  42. "Hate Map". Southern Poverty Law Center.
  43. "Michael Flynn Failed to Disclose Income From Russia-Linked Entities". The New York Times.
  44. "Report: Visa, Mastercard blocked donations to conservative think tank on advice from SPLC". World Tribune: Window on the Real World. August 24, 2018. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
  45. "David Horowitz to Newsmax TV: Fighting SPLC, Visa, Mastercard Over Funding Block". Newsmax. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
  46. Berlet, Chip (2003). "Into the Mainstream". Intelligence Report. Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved April 23, 2006.
  47. Horowitz, David (2003). "An Open Letter To Morris Dees". FrontPageMagazine.com. Archived from the original on January 7, 2004. Retrieved April 23, 2006.
  48. "Response to David Horowitz's Complaint". FrontPageMagazine.com. Archived from the original on July 30, 2012. Retrieved February 11, 2013.
  49. "Morris Dees' Hate Campaign". FrontPageMagazine.com. Archived from the original on September 4, 2012. Retrieved February 14, 2007.
  50. Arabia, Chris (2003). "Chip Berlet: Leftist Lie Factory". FrontPageMagazine.com. Archived from the original on December 27, 2012. Retrieved April 23, 2006.
  51. Ali, Wajahat; Clifton, Eli; Duss, Matthew; Fang, Lee; Keyes, Scott; Shakir, Faiz (August 26, 2011). "Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America". Center for American Progress. Retrieved June 28, 2016.
  52. George Zornick (August 29, 2011). "Fear, Inc.: America's Islamophobia Network". The Nation. Retrieved February 11, 2013.
  53. "Stop Islamization of America (SIOA)". Archived from the original on October 17, 2012. Retrieved December 6, 2012.
  54. "Meet Robert Shillman, the Tech Mogul Who Funds Pamela Geller's Anti-Islam Push".
  55. Chandler, Adam (May 4, 2015). "A Terror Attack in Texas". The Atlantic. Atlantic Monthly Group. Retrieved June 28, 2016.
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